heartbroken

a/n: Continuing with the season 1 episode 5 storyline for your reference!

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The sound of one of the pit droids rummaging through the workshop woke me up from my short-lived nap. I dragged myself out of the cot, walking over to the mirror. My hair was an absolute mess, so I ran my fingers through it, trying to put myself together in some way. I was about to holster my blaster when I heard heavy footsteps headed up the ship’s gangway outside. Knowing it couldn’t be the droids or Peli (given how loud the footsteps were), I decided to investigate; perhaps the Mandalorian had returned.

I grabbed my weapon, putting it in its holster, and headed outside to investigate. Just as I made my way into the hangar, I noticed the Mandalorian’s cape as it slipped into the ship. I looked up to the window of Peli’s office and could see her and the child still passed out, unaware that he had returned. Deciding now would be a better time than any to get some answers to my previous questions, I followed the Mandalorian quietly into the ship.

As I entered the Razor Crest, I took in my dim surroundings. The space wasn’t huge, it consisted of what appeared to be a gear and weapons locker, an alcove that housed a metal cot, a ladder and doors leading elsewhere, and several control panels that did who knows what. The space felt dark and isolated, almost lonely. I couldn’t imagine anyone living in it for an extended period of time, but it appeared the Mandalorian did just that.

I found him messing with a data pad; he seemed to be viewing info on a bounty. I almost made out who it was when –

“Are you attempting to spy on me?” the Mandalorian asked, turning the data pad off abruptly, but not altering the direction of his gaze.  

“You’re a hunter, aren’t you?” I asked, ignoring his accusation, and making one of my own.

“Yes, I am.” he admitted.

“Is that green thing one of your bounties or something?” I asked. At the mention of the kid, he jerked his head in the direction of the metal cot, now realizing the child was missing from the ship. His next focus was directed towards me, making his way over to where I stood in a few swift strides. With each step he took, I backed up further and further till I hit the wall with a loud thud. My head had hit the metal paneling behind me, and I hissed, rubbing the sore spot.

“Where is he?” he demanded, his helmet inches from my face.

I raised my hands up in defense, “It’s with Peli! You left it in here to fend for itself, what did you expect?” but he was already gone, and I was chasing after him.

Storming down the gangway, he yelled, “Hey!”, the sound jolting Peli from her nap. She came running down from her office, child in hand. I heard her start to give him a lecture about parenting and how to care for a child and I couldn’t help but laugh. I didn’t take Peli for the caring motherly type, especially with how she treated her droids. The baby was now crying, having been woken up from his nap too, and she was trying desperately to console him.

Everything she nagged him about had gone through one ear and out the other. “Give him to me.” he insisted, pointing to the kid. So, I guess it was a he.

She ignored him. “You know, you have an awful lot to learn about raisin’ a young one.” The child looked up at her, calmer now and cooing. The man just stood there staring at her through his visor, most likely realizing now that she wasn’t after his kid. She continued to hold him as she carried on, “Anyway, Kalena finished the repair on the fuel leak. I had a couple other setbacks I wanted to talk to you about. You know I didn’t use droids as requested so it’s taking a lot longer than I expected.” She rambled. “But I figured you were good for the money since you have an extra mouth to feed”. She looked up at him expectantly, probably trying to wring more credits out of him for her new babysitting gig.

“Thank you.” Was all he replied, walking out of the hanger with a tote bag in hand that he had grabbed from his ship. Peli looked astonished at his offering of thanks, but rolled with it, running out of the hangar after him. “You got a job, didn’t you? You know, it’s costing me a lot of money to keep these droids even powered up.” She complained further.

I followed, curious as to what this new job of his entailed. Especially since the bounty guild no longer did business on this planet and I was eager to see what happenings might be occurring still. Outside the bay stood a young man next to two speeder bikes. He had short, dark hair and light blue eyes. He dressed like a hot shot with tight pants, a blue vest, and gold hooped earrings. He was leaned up against one of the bikes with his arms crossed, a cocky look on his face.

“Hey, Mando, what do you think? Not too shabby, huh?” The man asked, gesturing at the bikes. Mando didn’t reply, but paced the length of the speeder, sizing it up. He jiggled what looked like a loose part of the metal framing and it made a clicking sound I suspect it shouldn’t have. His blank stare back at the guy made it clear he wasn’t impressed.

“Okay, what did you expect. This isn’t Corellia.” He defended himself. His attention now turned to me; a cheeky smile plastered on his face. “Ma’am” he said, nodding his head at me. “And what might your name be?”

“The name’s Kalena.” I answered him.

“Well Kalena, my name is Toro Calican. Have you ever hunted a bounty before? I see your well strapped”. He said, observing the blaster and knife attached to my sides. I scoffed, but quickly remembered I didn’t want to openly announce I was once a mercenary and kept that fact to myself.

“Nope. Not really the bounty hunting type.” It wasn’t entirely a lie, I hunted anyone I was paid to hunt, bounty or not.

“Coincidentally, neither have I. Mando here is gonna show me the ropes. Why don’t you tag along with us? We could use the extra gun.” Toro asked, mounting his bike. Mando secured his tote onto the back of his own bike and sat down, ready to go.

I laughed, “You’re first bounty huh? I don’t think me tagging along is a very good idea. Besides, I’m sure Peli here needs my help with… a coupler… or a motor… or something?” I turned to her, begging her to help me excuse myself from this scenario. However, she offered me no assistance. “Please, what good are you here? You basically already did the one thing you know how to do! Unless you want to help babysit the little guy.” She said, nudging her head in the direction of the kid in her arms.

I had never babysat a single thing in my life, and it kind of sounded like my nightmare. As much as I had gotten used to laying low and staying out of the scene, I missed the adventure of a hunt. This being Toro’s first bounty and all, it couldn’t be that difficult of a target. Plus, it seemed like this could turn out to be pretty amusing.

“Ugh, fine. Why not.” I gave up.

He tossed me a set of goggles and patted the space behind him, inviting me to hop on. I flashed him a fake smile and gave him the finger. Instead, I saddled up with Mando, throwing my leg around the back of his seat and wrapping my arms around his armored torso.

“Suit yourself.” Toro shrugged, pulling his own goggles on, and revving his speeder’s engine.

Toro took the lead speeding off, Mando and I following suit. Toro seemed to be the one who knew the way, he most likely had a tracking fob for whoever this bounty was. As we drove through town, we passed merchants, homes, shops, and establishments. It had been a while since I had left the hanger, and it was nice to see life again.  

My hair whipped around in every direction, dust covered me from head to toe, but I was content in my newfound adventure. Once we were out of town entirely, we sped up and zoomed over dunes of sand, passing farms and assorted wildlife here and there. I gripped Mando for dear life, not wanting to find out what would happen if I were to fall off somehow.

He was stiff as a board, obviously very uncomfortable by the forced intimacy. It's not that I wasn’t uncomfortable myself, it had been a very long time since I had been this close to another person, let alone touched one. The idea of him being nervous and stiff over me holding him made me chuckle, though.

He didn’t have a face or a name to me, but I was admittedly attracted to the Mandalorian. I guess I’d been couped up for so long that those typical prerequisites were no longer necessary to me. His voice, though modified slightly through the helmet, was low and smooth. His body fit and tall. He was very overprotective of his child, which was a good sign. Actually, I had no clue if the kid was truly his or not, I mean it couldn’t be HIS, he’s a human. At least, I assumed so; he hadn’t taken his helmet off to prove otherwise.

Before I could get lost in this bizarre train of thought further, we came to a halting stop. I looked around but couldn’t spot anything that would call for a sudden break in our journey, and apparently neither could Toro.

“What’s going on?” he asked the Mandalorian.

“Look. Up ahead.” was the reply. Far in the distance, I saw a few specks but couldn’t make out what they were. Toro hopped off his bike and grabbed a pair of binocs he had in his bag, walking further up ahead to get a better look at the specks.

“Tusken Raiders. I heard the locals talking about this filth.” Toro said, looking through the binocs.

“Tuskens think they’re the locals, everyone else is just trespassing.” he replied.

I peeled myself off Mando and got up to stretch my legs. It was at this moment I realized a pair of Tuskens were approaching us, and I launched backwards into the Mandalorian, who was now standing behind me. He saw me go for my blaster and quickly placed his large hand over mine, signaling with the other to wait.

“Well, whatever they call themselves, they best keep their distance.” Toro said, still unaware we had company.

“Yeah? Why don’t you tell them yourself?” Mando asked. Toro whipped his head around, taking in the Tusken Raiders standing before us. He looked like he was about to shit his pants, which I would have gladly paid to see. Unfortunately, that did not happen. In a surprising turn of events: Mando knew Tusken Sign Language! He began a silent conversation with them, baffling both Toro and I. It was an amazing sight that ignited so many more questions about the mysterious Mandalorian that I settled on asking him about later.

Toro seemed just as astonished as I was, looking back and forth in awe at them and Mando. “What is going on?” he asked, concerned as to whether or not we were about to be captured and killed. Not wanting him to interrupt Mando’s negotiating, I helped explain: “Are you not from around here? He said they view themselves as the locals. This is their land, and we need safe passage across it”.

It appeared as though the parties had come to a decision, and, with that, Mando turned to Toro. “Let me see the binocs.” he demanded.

Toro looked him up and down with a puzzled look on his face. “Why?” he asked. What could Mando need the binocs for? Surely his helmet had that kind of equipment built in.

Mando continued to stare at him in reply, not having time for any questions.

He shrugged, rolling his eyes, and plopped the binocs into Mando’s gloved hand. The moment he did, Mando tossed the binocs to the Tuskens and the trade had been made.

Toro waved his arms frantically as if to catch them. Failing, he exclaimed: “Hey! Wh-What? Those were brand new!”.

“Yeah? They were.” replied Mando coldly, already walking back to the speeders to leave. He hopped on to our bike and revved it, our signal to hurry up and join him before they changed their minds. With the Tuskens satisfied, it was our time to leave. Toro scoffed and trudged over to his bike complacently.

“Fun’s just begun.” I muttered under my breath, smirking as I rejoined Mando on the bike. With that ordeal settled, we sped off, back on our hunt.

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a/n: reposted! i took it down to change some things. chapter 3 is already written and will be up in a day or two. i am starting the story out at the season 1 episode 5 timeline and will be referencing that for a little bit, fyi.

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I was in the hangar's workshop, working on my recently assigned duty of scraping rust off some scrap parts Peli planned on selling in town, when I heard the sound of a starship landing in the bay. It jolted my attention away from the task; we hadn't had a single ship land in what felt like weeks, and I know Peli was hurting for the credits. My scraper tool clanged to the ground as I ran outside to greet whoever was landing.

Walking into the open air of the hangar, I noticed I wasn’t the only one aware of the new arrival. The pit droids were scrambling into position with their oil cans and toolboxes ready to assist. The ship had landed at this point and the gangway started to lower. A figure came walking down the ramp and, before I realized what was happening, I smelled the familiar scent of blaster fire. My old instincts sprang to life, and I bolted to find cover behind some storage crates. The droids went running for cover too, seemingly the targets of the firing.

After a moment of silence, I peeked out from behind my hiding spot to see what the cause of the blaster fire could be. It had come from the figure I saw on the ramp. Now that the smoke had cleared a bit, I managed to get a better look at him. It was a Mandalorian. I hadn’t seen a Mandalorian in quite some time, but the helmet was obviously that of one. He wore brown pants and undershirt, topped with what must be silver, beskar armor (his helmet made of the same material). Almost a complete set, but with one worn metal armor piece on his right thigh. A brown cape reached his mid-calf.

“Hey...Hey!” came the shrill voice of Peli, running down from her office. “You damage one of my droids, you’ll pay for it!” she warned. Peli was admittedly small, but her petite body was home to an infinite amount of rage should the need arise, and it often did. The Mandalorian, however, was not phased by her cruel tone in the slightest.

“Just keep them away from my ship” he ordered plainly. What the hell was this guy’s problem? He crash lands into our hangar, needing our help, and he thinks to introduce himself by shooting down the poor pit droids? Peli must have had the same thought, “Yeah? You think that’s a good idea, do ya?” she countered, taking in the damage of the ship.

The ship in question was definitely in dire need of repairs. Smoke billowed from its engines, and it was apparent it had just been in a shootout. Peli began inspecting the ship, a Razor Crest, muttering something about carbon scoring and a fuel leak. After her appraisal of the damage, the Mandalorian offered her a sizable 500 credits which shut her up pretty quickly. But she had a talent for squeezing the maximum number of credits out of someone and wouldn’t just stop there.

“Ha! That’s all you got? Well, what do you guys think?” she asked the droids, turning to see their reaction. Obviously, they didn’t have much of a response to her other than some scattered chatters and chirps. “That should at least cover the damage to the hangar…” she tried, looking up at him to see if he’d take the bait. Forgetting I was still a hidden observer of this conversation, I scoffed loudly at her obvious attempt to scam the Mandalorian of his credits. This drew the attention of the two of them and I gave up my hiding spot, walking out in the open to join them now.

“I’ll get you your money” he said reluctantly. “Just remember—"

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, no droids. I heard ya. You don’t have to say it twice. ‘Sides, that’s what I got Kalena here for.” she said, waving her arm at me to come help. “Peli, I don’t know how much help I—”.

“Oh, please Kal, you’re the best mechanic I got!” she lied, giving me wide eyes that told me to shut up and play along. We both turned to look at the Mandalorian now, to gauge his response. But by the time our little banter was over, he had already slipped out of the bay.

“Jeez…womp rat.” Peli mumbled. - Luckily, in my short time working with Peli, we had seen a fuel leak or two and I had a general idea of where to start. Though I hadn’t gotten to do one on a starship of this size, the job itself was mostly the same from ship to ship.

I started by inspecting the damage to the fuel tank. The blaster marks proved my earlier suspicions correct; this ship had been in a shootout. Sealing the leak wouldn’t be a problem and I mindlessly got to work. The annoying part was not being able to use the droids to assist me. Not that I needed much of their help here anyway, but still. What was this dude’s issue with droids?

After I was sure the leak was repaired sufficiently, I examined the rest of the body of the ship. I couldn’t really find anything my small set of mechanic skills could handle, so I trudged over to Peli to ask her for her help. I found her at the Sabacc table with the three pit droids, it looked like they were all losing to her as usual.

“I’m in! And I am gonna raise you…three bolts…and…a motivator.” She exclaimed, pushing the bolts to the middle of the playing table.

“Peli, the fuel leak is sealed. I’m pretty much useless for anything else. Do you want to take a look at it and see what you can do?”

Before she could reply, a gurgling noise came from the opening of the ship. I whipped around to see what the noise was, hovering my hand over the dagger strapped to my side for emergencies. Unfortunately, my blaster was in my room and not on me. I heard Peli whisper to one of the pit droids for it to grab her blaster rifle. She nodded her head at me in the direction of the ship, silently asking me to take the lead and inspect the noise. I laughed under my breath at her. She was the one with the rifle, my dagger couldn’t do nearly as much damage. But, after all, I was the ex-mercenary. So, I did my duty and started creeping towards the ship.

A tiny creature emerged from inside the darkness of the ship. It was a little green thing with the largest ears I had ever seen on a being so small. It looked up at me with big black eyes and a tiny face. Whatever it was was wearing a tan coat and seemed unfazed by our presence. It continued to walk down the ramp, curious as to its new surroundings. I turned around to look puzzlingly at Peli, who was just as confused. I don’t think either of us had seen a creature like this before. Once it was at my feet, it lifted its arms towards me and made a cooing sound.

“Is it… a baby?” I asked aloud, crouching down to get a better look.

“That hot shot left a baby on that ship to fend for itself? He needs to learn a thing or two about how to care for a child properly.” Rambled Peli, scooping the kid up in her arms and bouncing it. The creature seemed happy with this and settled into her arms, cooing some more. Whatever it was, it had to be just a baby or a kid. It didn’t talk, but only made a few noises. Seemed like it just wanted some attention. Peli took the kid with her upstairs into her office and took a nap, giving up on the ship for now. With the fuel leak repaired, the biggest issue was resolved, and the rest would be up to Peli once she got around to it.

I wandered to the other side of the bay, inside to my room. As I plopped onto my bed and laid there, an influx of questions swam through my head. Who was this Mandalorian? Who did the child belong to? What business did he have to attend to so abruptly? The weapons and armor he carried were impressive, perhaps he was a hunter or a mercenary like I once was. That being said: who did he work for? Was he someone we could trust? He didn’t seem to recognize me which is good. If he really was a hunter, it’s safe to say there is most likely not a price on my head still or he would have snatched me right then and there.

I decided to retire my thoughts and take a nap myself, curling up under my wool blanket. Whoever the two of them were, time would tell, and I’d do my best to protect myself and Peli from any danger should the moment come.

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